


The Price of Love

by xbluemist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Hogwarts, Scorbus, cat lover!Scorpius, pretty much completed but i'll prbly add some smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 12:25:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11737011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xbluemist/pseuds/xbluemist
Summary: Scorpius really loves cats. Albus does not. But he loves Scorpius.





	The Price of Love

"Scor, I'm telling you, you can't buy it!"

Al leaned against the shelves, hands in the pockets of his old fashioned trousers, annoyed look on his face as he watched his boyfriend making dreamy eyes at a fluffy, grey cat that was sitting in one of the many boxes that were spread around in the pet store they were currently at.

"Why not?" Scorpius looked up at him innocently from the spot where he was kneeling and playing with the cat, making it try to catch his hand.

"You know exactly why not! I'm allergic to cats; and four are way too much already."

"Oh Al, but look at him..." He picked the ash-grey ball of furr up and held it in his arms, rocking it gently. "Look, he's so lonely here, he needs family!"

The almost surprisingly calm cat blinked at him, its blue eyes huge with interest as it let out a small meow, trying to catch Scorpius' hand as the blond started petting the creature.

"Such a cutie, isn't it, Al? Isn't it just the cutest little thing? Don't tell me it isn't the cutest thing you have ever seen." He looked at Al, making those big, innocent eyes, looking very much like the cat in his arms, because he knew Al could never resist this look. 

"It _might_ be; but at most in second place after you," Al said flatly, looking at his boyfriend and the cat with as much indifference in his expression as he could muster. "We aren't going to buy another cat though," he insisted, folding his arms and watching with an annoyed look as his boyfriend plays happily with the furry creature.

"But Al, look... he already loves me," Scorpius cooed, staring at the purring cat with so much affection on his face Al suddenly felt something stir inside his chest. He groaned in frustration, rubbing his face with his hands, then let out a small sigh and looked back at the blond; the cat in his arms pawing at Scorpius' face as the man nuzzled his cheek against its fluffy fur.

Al furrowed his brows, for the nth time in his life amazed at the peculiar bond his boyfriend seemed to have with felines.

"If you kiss it, I'm not going to even touch your face until you wash it."

Scorpius looked up at him, that innocent look present on his face again.

"Alright, alright, I don't want you to get a sneeze fit again, after all." He smiled at the brunette in his usual adorable way, though a hint of amusement flashed in the expresion. "Do note, however, that _I_ don't complain when you kiss your ferret. I don't complain at all about your ferret actually."

Al blinked at him.

" _Well_ , first of all, as you know very well and as I had pointed out to you at least ten times already so I don't know why you keep playing this stupid game with me..." he paused to take a breath, "my ferret is an _only_ ferret in our house. Secondly, as you also know very well and as I had also pointed out to you at least ten times already, it spends almost half of its time in its cage, _unlike your cats_ that are constantly leaving their fur all over our house. I don't have to remind you what happened the last time you forgot to clean it off of our sofa, do I?"

Scorpius bit his lip at that, trying very hard not to burst into laughter.

"It's not funny, Scor! I didn't know a sudden fit of sneezing can be such a cock-block." Al huffed indignantly.

"Well, at least you'd learned something new," the blond pointed out to him, amusement clear in his voice. "Oh, and as for why I keep playing this stupid game with you... Well, it's just oddly entertaining to watch and listen to you explaining it to me every single time. Huh." He frowned with a soft snort. "I hope now, that you know this, you won't stop with this tradition? Cause I think I grew too fond of it."

Al gave him a withering look at which Scorpius cleared his throat, doing his best to return to more serious state.

"And the _third_ and another very obvious thing," Al said, ignoring his boyfriend's words completely, "is that you aren't even allergic to ferrets."

"Oh I might be, you never know..." the blond said in an almost grievous tone, making Al give him another cold look.

"Uhuh, sure," he said dismissively. "The point is, there's no way we buy another cat."

"Yeah, well, you won't. _I_ will."

"Don't play with me like that, Scor, you know what I mean."

The blond sighed dramatically; the cat in his arms letting out a tiny meow, asking for more petting from him, and purring happily when it regained Scorpius' attention.

"Al, please. Please, please, please. Only this one, and then there'll be no more. Please. I promise I'll take care of our cats--Yeah, yeah, _my_ cats," he amended when Al opened his mouth. "I'll make sure there's no fur or anything around you... And I'll teach him and the rest some super cool tricks I have found in that new book you'd bought me on our anniversary; you love watching me doing this, don't you? I know you do." Scorpius smirked at his boyfriend victoriously giving him a knowing look.

Al rolled his eyes; he actually did love watching Scorpius playing with his cats. But not because of the cats but because of Scorpius himself; there really weren't many more heartwarming pictures that could make Albus feel like a puddle of goo, than the one his boyfriend was making whenever he was spending time with his cats. Sometimes, Al really wished he wasn't allergic to them; the anti-allergic potion acutally did a good job, but he always got unbearable headaches the next day after he took it that nothing could cure, and he and Scorpius had spent hours working on the potion, trying to get rid of this unpleasant side effect, so far to no avail.

Still, Scorpius was taking quite a good care of his cats, so that Albus didn't have to suffer through his allergy that much. And knowing how passionate his boyfriend was about his cats- he had a whole section in his private library dedicated to cats, something Al was in quite a shock upon discovering- Al found it harder each time the blond fell in love with a new cat to object to adding yet another member to the cat family that lived under their roof. And it didn't help as much as he wished that the blond turned out to have an eerie bond with animals and was able to discipline his cats in a truly impressive way. Because still, cats were cats. And Al was allergic to cats.

 _Why did I fall in love with such a cat lover,_ Al had been asking himself since the first cat that Scorpius had one day brought home with him from his way back home from his healer training. And each time he asked that question, he got reminded, in an extremely pleasant way, why exactly he did.

Al remembered very well how big his surprise was when he got back home from his own studies for a potioneer the day Scorpius brought his first cat to their house, and saw his boyfriend sitting on the floor in their living room, endlessly immersed in play with the, as Albus was informed the moment he entered the room, new resident of their house. Didn't go without a small argument though, during which Al, for the first time, informed a deeply upset Scorpius that he can't live with cats around because of his allergy. The argument ended, however, with Al's resistance breaking under his love for the blond and the brunet nobly declaring, as though following the old turth that 'love is the power that conquers everything', that he can suffer through living under one roof with a cat if that was what his beloved person wanted so much. He was actually forced to go further than that as Scorpius then said that he actually can live without that cat as he absolutely doesn't want Al to suffer. In the general emotional-and-very-touching atmosphere of the situation, Al then said that Scorpius' happiness is more important to him than anything else, and besides, there certainly is some way to cure his allergy; and the whole thing ended up with a very enthusiastic, love-and-gratefulness-fueled gift from the blond in the form of an extremely passionate kiss that turned to a heavy make-out session that then turned to them both forgetting completely about the whole world as they melted in their carnal pleasure.

Albus sighed heavily.

"You're gonna pay for this, Scorpius," he said coldly, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets, almost not believing in his own mercy.

The blinding grin that blond rewarded him with seemed to melt something in him each time he received it though.

"Sure. I've taken Muggle money with me this time, see?" He pulled out the wallet where he kept his Muggle money.

"I mean _the other_ kind of pay," Al explained, giving his boyfriend a meaningful look.

Scorpius' brows rose in understanding.

"Oh. Yeah, no problem at all." He said in a singsong voice as he shrugged, carefully replacing the cat onto his shoulder. "I've been actually hoping for a while..." He flashed a rakish smirk at Al, and they walked over to the checkout.

"Very well," Al commented, eyeying the cat attentively as Scorpius tucked it carefully in its cage; something cold rising in his chest for a moment upon the realisation that there it was yet another living being he would soon have to be sharing his boyfriend with. He was quite a possessive person after all; although the mere fact that cats were apparently making the person he loved to no end so childishly happy was more than enough for him to accept this.

"But this time..." the brunet lowered his voice to a casual whisper, bringing his hand to slid it down Scorpius' back slowly until it rested just above his belt, smiling at the blond's quiet gasp, "I think we could try and play with ropes..."

Scorpius' brows furrowed as he looked at him, something unreadable in his icy blue eyes.

"Uh..."

"It's gonna be your payment, Scor," Al hummed in a light tone, shoving his hand back in his trouser pocket. "Wanna something, gotta pay for it."

He smirked, seeing Scorpius' pale face coloring with a faint blush. But then, a loud meow could be heard from the cage, and Scorpius returned his attention back to the cat, coughing softly to clear his throat before he handed the cashier the right amount of money. After a short talk with the sellman, he gripped the cage, bidding goodbye to the cashier, and exited the pet store, Al following him suit.

"Thinking of a name?" Al asked casually at the extending silence as they walked down the street.

"Actually, yes. What would you say on Ash?"

Al shrugged.

"It's okay. Though I'd expect something at least a bit more creative from you," he teased.

"Yeah... Well, I'll think of something better. Just don't talk to me for a moment, okay?"

And so they walked the rest of their way home in silence; Scorpius with a constant smile tugging at his lips, checking on his new friend every so often, and Al with a self-satisfactory smirk on his face as he busied himself with thinking about all the lovely things they were going to be doing tonight.

Yeah, he could endure one more cat in their house. And maybe even more, if his boyfriend would happen to fall in love with yet another cat in the future. After all, Scorpius always knew how best to make up for it for him.

**Author's Note:**

> It was meant to be a very short thing, a drabble or something, but turned out a bit longer. And then I thought this could make a nice base for a smut, so perhaps I'll write it- in the second chapter. I didn't want to prolong publishing this chapter though, so I just published what I had so far.  
> Well, I hope you enjoyed. :) 
> 
> PS: English wasn't my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes.


End file.
